North Vietnam Recs: Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay, the Northwest

[rarerollingobject]

More things; banh goi, deep fried Vietnamese pastries of pork mince, vermicelli and wood ear fungus. These are hard to find, the only place I encountered was at 52 Ly Quoc Su, purveyor of all things deep fried. Bloody delicious.

A meal at Highway 4, 5 Hang Tre. jmolinari was right, food very meh. Some seafood spring rolls, pomelo salad and caramelised pork belly, none of which were particularly exciting versions. Maybe they were fine and I just wasn't in the mood, but I kind of hated this place (not even the A/C worked, false advertising!)

To soothe my cantankerosity, I got a banh mi on the way home. I was actually looking for a banh mi with pate etc but none to be found at that time of night, so the other version available was banh mi doner kebab. Fatty pork on a bun, cabbage, coriander, chilli sauce and pickles.

And got back to the hotel and polished off a bottle of Vietnamese one, out of scientific interest. It reminded me of New Zealand wine of a few years ago, promising but not really there yet.

Also, some bakery goodies..Hanoi is pretty full of good bakeries, and this one (a branch of a chain, on Phan Ding Phung St) was pretty spiffy. Got a bag of macaron shells (!) and a pate xo, puff pastry filled with pate and pork mince. Tasty.

Not all of these are from the same day, I'm drifting, you understand..anyway, also went to Grilled Chicken St, or Ly Van Phuc for gu nuong. Vietnamese grilled chicken is incredible, I have no idea exactly what they do to it but it's so good. Unfortunately, we weren't all that hungry so had a wing or two, a stick of chicken breast, and some thigh/leg meat. It's served with cucumber pickles and baguettes smeared in honey and toasted till crispy. And COLD beer, heaven!

Hilariously, the grill dude absolutely INSISTED we take his photo, and then chose to look THIS impressed when we did:

OK, the big 'un...we took ourselves along for the Sunday brunch buffet at the Metropole. Expensive way to get some air conditioning, I tell you, but it was pretty good. I especially liked the cooked-to-order foie gras station, and the amazing duck liver parfaits in shot glasses. Seafood was good too, oysters, prawns, crabs, sashimi and smoked salmon. Also, whelks, razor clams, caviar and salmon roe.

Sorry some of these are blurry, the boyfriend walked around taking them all and the man has no concept of focusing a camera.

Duck liver parfait, beef carpaccio, foie gras, smoked salmon, salmon and foie gras rice paper rolls, beef tartare..bliss. These aren't all my plates, blurry ones = boyfriend's, but I reckon we actually ate about double this..

As you might imagine, we were pretty full after that!

Edited June 22, 2012 by rarerollingobject (log)

[MikeHartnett]

Awesome! I need to get to Vietnam soon!

[rarerollingobject]

Awesome! I need to get to Vietnam soon!

Thanks! Vietnam is such a fantastic country for food.

OK, last post. Since the boyfriend was technically there for work (not that you'd know it from our food pics!), there's always at least one meal involving being taken out by his Vietnamese colleagues. I look forward to these meals. They always order up a storm, though this time they were remarkably restrained..

They took us to Pho Bien, 14 Trang Thi in the Hai Ba Trung district of Hanoi. This was a huge seafood restaurant, obviously for locals in the know as we didn't see another Westerner anywhere near the joint.

First up, some kind of gelatinous soup, maybe chicken and egg thread?

The ubiquitous seafood rolls. These seem to be everywhere and are tasty but packed full of mayonnaise!

Fried squid, miraculously tender:

Green salad, Viet style:

The main event, a crispy fried fish (called 'mu' in Vietnamese), it's some kind of freshwater fish that I haven't been able to work out in English. It came with rice paper, vermicelli and herbs to roll up into crispy parcels.

The rice paper was thinner than any I've encountered before and didn't need to be moistened the way the thicker stuff does. I started rolling my own, like the peasant I am, while everyone else let the waiter do it:

Finished and ready for dipping:

Lastly, chao vit or congee made with the fish's head. Eyeballs and all.

Dessert was the sweetest, most juicy pomelo I've ever had. A pomelo to make Sydney pomelos taste like hockey pucks..yum. Dipped in chilli and salt, I loved this. The quality and abundance of fruit in Vietnam really is incredible.

And candied ginger:

The restaurant, near closing time. I'm definitely coming back to this place next time I'm here, there were so many things on the menu I'd have ordered if we were the ones paying.

Another meal at a bia hoi, which is an outdoor beer garden type thing that springs up at night with tents, tables and tiny midget stools along entire street sides..this one was Bit Tet Hai Ty at 20 Hang Giay St. Ignore the doofus in the photo, I must've caught him mid blink or mid slur.

Pork-stravaganza..first, suon ran (caramelised short ribs) and then suon rang muoi, salt and pepper ribs, both buried in mountains of deep fried lemon grass and green onion. Greasy and delicious and consumed with much beer.

A meal at Quan Com Pho, a mid-range Vietnamese restaurant in the outer city (29 Le Van Huu).

Crab spring rolls:

Ribs with sesame sauce:

Caramel prawns:

Honey-grilled squid with chilli sauce (the winner):

And a passionfruit juice, seriously delicious:

Phew. Wanna see a Vietnamese supermarket? This is Intimex, at Le Thai Tho. We went to stock up on packaged coffee, chilli sauce etc to take home. I don't think many Vietnamese actually shop here (why would you, when the fresh food markets are so good?) but if you're interested in overseas supermarkets like I am, here you go:

And a last meal in Hanoi before I flew back to Sydney, fried eggplant with garlic and caramel squid, at Little Hanoi, 14 Ha Tien.

Phew! And that's it. Barely scratched the surface of this incredible food city. Already can't wait to go back.

[Dakki]

Wow. Even the hotel buffet looks fantastic.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8020/7412597464_3db414cc55_z.jpg

You have to find out what they do to that chicken, because I think I can taste it just by looking at the pic.

A recipe (or at least the Viet name) for that winning honey-grilled chili squid would be nice too. I see big squid steaks for seriously cheap all the time, and come on, SQUID, but I have no idea what to do with them.

[liuzhou]

The main event, a crispy fried fish (called 'mu' in Vietnamese), it's some kind of freshwater fish that I haven't been able to work out in English.

'cá mú' or just 'mú' is grouper. But they are not freshwater. Most are farmed.

Great series of pictures. I'm off there next week (for the xth time), and will seek out some of the places you mention.

Edited June 24, 2012 by liuzhou (log)